Choice
Plot After Jennifer Fulton is found assaulted in a bar, she first accuses a young male of attacking her, but then it is revealed that her husband, Craig attacked her. When Jennifer reveals that she is pregnant and wants an abortion, Craig drags his wife into court to stop it, but even though she wins, Jennifer decides to keep her child, and Olivia, concerned with Jennifer's alcoholism tries to convince her to get help, but then soon discovers that Jennifer had a child who is stricken with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and is mentally damaged from it. Craig takes Jennifer to court again and after the state of her first child is discovered, she is ordered to not drink and get counseling. After Jennifer defies the court's orders not to drink, Olivia has no choice but to arrest her for contempt of court, but then contemplates on whether or not she made the right decision as Craig is doing it all to harass Jennifer. At trial, Jennifer and her attorney argue that she was drinking because of stress while Novak argues that pregnancy is stress that will not go away and she must be locked in a facility to ensure she gets treatment. Jennifer is found not guilty of contempt of court, though she is reminded that the original ruling still stands and she must still receive counseling for her drinking. Benson later finds her outside her daughter's house and Jennifer understands that the jury found her not guilty as they didn't want to lock her up, but that she is guilty as she damaged her first child Lily and potentially damaged the one that she is carrying now. With Benson's encouragement, Jennifer goes to meet and talk to Lily and presumably quits drinking as she now understands the consequences of it. Summary Episode summary Cast Main cast * Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler * Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson * Richard Belzer as Detective John Munch * Diane Neal as A.D.A. Casey Novak * Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutuola * B.D. Wong as Dr. George Huang (credit only) * Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen Recurring cast * Callie Thorne as Defense Attorney Nikki Staines * Mike Doyle as C.S.U. Technician Ryan O'Halloran * Tom O'Rourke as Judge Mark Seligman * Mariette Hartley as Defense Attorney Lorna Scarry * Beverly D'Angelo as Defense Attorney Rebecca Balthus * Ali Reza as Dr. Rohit Mehta Guest cast * Josie Bissett as Jennifer Fulton * Rick Aiello as Craig Fulton * Victor Rasuk as Leon Ardilles * Lenka Peterson as Melanie Dunne * Elain R. Graham as Judge Sara Henning * Fred Burrell as Judge Howie Rebard * Shirley Jones as Attorney Felicity Bradshaw * Victoria Clark as Margaret Melia * Chris Bachand as Joshua Fulton * Philip LaSalle as Uniform Officer Breggin * Tod Engle as Tom Longleat * Kathleen DeFouw as Jury Forewoman * Kathrine Roberts as Lily Longleat References * Agnus Dei * Quotes : Lorna Scarry: Congratulations, Ms. Novak, you've got your cops hauling pregnant women out of their homes in the midlde of night. Casey Novak: Detective Benson showed a concern for Mrs. Fulton above and beyond the call of duty Jennifer Fulton: I'm sitting here becuase of her concern for me. Background information and notes *Kathrine Roberts, who played Lily in this episode, has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.http://come-over.to/FAS/LawAndOrder.htm *'Goof': It takes at least 10 minutes to get the results of a paint match from a GC/MS. The less-than-a-minute result seen in this episode is virtually impossible. *When Olivia asks Elliot what he would do if Kathy had another baby, he responds that he would shoot himself. His son Eli would be born a few years later. References (Sources) Episode scene cards Category:SVU episodes